Boca Officials Will Borrow $15.9 Million

Oceanfront Property `An Asset' To Community

December 14, 1994|By SARAH RAGLAND Staff Writer

BOCA RATON - — City officials on Tuesday night agreed to borrow as much as $15.9 million for the Greater Boca Raton Beach Tax District so the district can buy the last large piece of oceanfront property in the city.

The council voted 4-1 in favor of the plan after debating whether city officials should allow such a costly item to go forward without a referendum.

"Denying the taxpayers the right to vote on this is a grave mistake," said council member Esther Dance, the lone dissenter on the plan.

The majority said the property is too valuable to lose.

"People can say we need to negotiate harder," council member Wanda Thayer said. "But this is truly an asset to our community."

City officials said they had to move quickly or risk losing the property to development.

Continental Development Corp. and Sullivan Properties - the owners of the property - have said that they will proceed with plans to build houses and condominiums at the site if the sale is not completed by the end of the year.

The tax district voted on Monday to spend $11.88 million to buy the 15-acre parcel and turn it into a park. The property stretches from the ocean to the Intracoastal Waterway by Ocean Strand.

But the district had to rely on the City Council to provide long-term financing for the deal.

The city wants to borrow several million dollars more than the purchase price so that money is set aside to make interest payments and cover other costs associated with long-term financing.

Tax district officials say they will be able to repay the money by 2008 without raising taxes. Instead, taxes will not be lowered in 1998 - as had been expected - when the district pays off the money borrowed to buy Red Reef Park.